Just got a call

...from Robin on her new cell phone. From the sound of it, it's a few generations snappier than the one I've been using. Whistles and bells (and cameras and games) aside, if it gets decent reception here in the house, I may have to go for one of them myself.

Costa Rica tends to run out of phone lines - they're always expanding the systems, but often lagging a bit behind the demand. For instance, the reason I haven't applied for a land line here at the house is that a neighbor down the street has had the phone company work order posted in her window since December. December of 2007. The local switchboards (or whatever they're called nowadays) are simply saturated; there are no lines available in this particular neighborhood.

Cell phones were the same way until recently; you just couldn't get one. There was a waiting list, and then something like 100,000 lines finally became available earlier this year. From what I hear, more are coming out in the next couple of months and I keep saying I should go down and get an actual cell phone line in my own actual name.

If, as I say, Robin's works well here in the house, that'll be an added incentive to actually go ahead and do that.